This is why I don’t mind not having a TV in the condo (my roommate‘s taking it home with her). With Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Heroes, Prison Break, and now, Grey’s Anatomy downloads to keep me occupied, who needs the tube? (Spoilers ahead.)

So the Grey’s Anatomy gang is back, and let me just say the first two minutes made me grip my pillow a bit too tighter — not like they can really take Derek Shepherd’s character off the story.

McDreamy is still as dreamy as ever, Mark Sloan is still annoyingly but irresistibly cute, Meredith Grey is still made of emo (sometimes too emo haha), Miranda Bailey’s still my most favorite character, and Cristina Yang.. she has got to be my new idol. Her bitterness and cynicism FTW! (Take it from Yang, happily ever afters are not real, yeh.)

And then there’s George O’malley who’s more gay than ever (it’s too obvious to hide), making Lexie’s fascination of him a bit awkward. The team up of Callie Torres and Erica Han is still a bit icky but is taking an exciting turn, Alex Karev is still way too unpredictable, and Izzie Stevens is still the mushiest thing. I can’t think of a character that I didn’t like. Even the army surgeon (Cristina’s new love interest) is hawt!

I’ve always thought that GA script is made of win, that it’s the perfect blend of emo, cynicism, and medical psychobabble that I never thought I would consider to be interesting (I never really liked House or Scrubs or ER even when I tried).

GA’s bound to an exciting season, yay. And let me just say getting a glimpse of Denny towards the end of the episode made my heart skip a beat. Now there’s an idea. What if they let Izzie keep this imaginary love affair with his dead ex boyfriend in their own alternate universe, then we could all anticipate Denny’s surprise appearances throughout the season, yay. Too bad GA’s not like Heroes or Prison Break where they can twist the story around just to bring a dead character back. Hmm. No wait.

But no, I wasn’t there that night. I was, half-hearted, on the way to Embassy with some colleagues when I got texts from my Mom and brothers (Kuya Nate was with the ABSCBN crew who covered the event) about the abrupt ending of the most-awaited rock concert of all time. Ely Buendia, having gone through loads of emotional and physical stress brought about by concert rehearsals and the death of his mom, had a heart attack towards the end of the first set.. but of course everyone knows already what happened.

My family has developed this familial concern for Ely Buendia, not only because my brother, Nikos, would spend all his high school allowance buying cassette tapes and making mixtapes of Eraserheads songs, and we would all have to listen to them blasting on our stereos all-day ’round. And not only because I eventually started sharing my brother’s addiction, spending all my lunch money buying songhits with Eraserheads centerfolds, lyrics and chords, much to our parents’ questioning however we convince them that Eheads was the new Beatles.

It was only when Ely had his first attack about two years ago that the rest of the family (read: my Mom) started being interested about the whereabouts and whatabouts of Eraserheads (and/or the lack thereof).

Which explains why I knew about Ely’s heart attack right when it was being announced. There I was, on the way to Embassy, in a conference call with my brothers and Mom. Yeh. :P

Last Saturday, Ely Buendia was released from the hospital, recovering from his third angioplasty, a heart procedure that is so familiar to me (and my family) because my Dad underwent the same procedure just before Ely’s first attack in 2007. Incidentally, Dr. Wilfredo Dee, my Dad’s Cardiologist, was the same person who performed Ely Buendia’s angioplasties. And I can just assume that it was Dr. Dee who performed Ely’s third angioplasty also, after all, there are very few cardiologists in the Philippines who perform angioplasty, and Dr. Dee is one of them.

Angioplasty is the new bypass. Unlike bypass, however, angioplasty is not an intrusive procedure because it doesn’t require to cut through the chest and open up the heart. In my Dad’s case, he was cut somewhere in his thigh, just big enough to insert the stent (“tightly folded balloons“) to flow through the vessels, and right through the clot that’s blocking the passageway of the blood to his heart. (Sorry for the very UN-technical explanation, I’m describing this based on how I understood what was done to my Dad. Heh.)

And, unlike bypass which cuts through blood vessels to install new ones for the blood to flow through, angioplasty restores the blood vessels to its original state, perhaps a bit weakened, but easier to recover from. You’d wonder how in the world can Ely Buendia still live to tell the story and promise a second Eraserhead Reunion Concert after three (!!!) heart procedures, well — it’s angioplasty alright. If Ely had three bypasses instead, I reckon his heart would be weaker, and he’d be on bed-rest the rest of his prime.

There’s a lot of buzz about another Eraserheads Reunion in the works. I make sure I get myself a ticket this time. Not only because Eraserheads has been the soundtrack of my young, carefree life too, just like everyone else; But I’d like to be rooting for Ely Buendia, most especially, for putting his whole heart out there — literally and figuratively — in the name of music and life. Hands down.